George A. Lemaistre

• October 25th, 2021

One man: lawyer, banker, civic leader, teacher, friend. One man of courage. One man who mattered to us all. That was how The Tuscaloosa News described George Alexander LeMaistre in an editorial published the day before the former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was laid to rest in September 1994.

George LeMaistre was born in Lockhart, Alabama, on September 8, 1911, to John Wesley and Edith McLeod LeMaistre, and came to live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1930 with his widowed mother and four younger siblings. Although he had not completed his undergraduate study, the young man entered The University of Alabama School of Law that year, and upon his graduation in 1933, commenced his first profession, the practice of law, in Tuscaloosa. The following year he was joined in law practice by his close friend Marc Ray “Foots” Clement. The two would remain partners in law practice for the rest of George Faith LeMaistre’s career as an attorney, and the closest of friends, as well as partners in politics and various business ventures, until Foots Clement died in 1961.

In 1939 George began teaching, part-time, as an adjunct professor at the UA law school. He would continue teaching at the university, in the School of Law or College of Commerce and Business Administration, for 49 of the next 56 years. He was co-author, with Professor Garrett Hagan, of Real Estate Handbook: Land Laws of Alabama, and author of Legal Aspects of Real Estate Transactions.

Throughout his life, George LeMaistre demonstrated a deep devotion to both his country and his God. In 1941 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served through 1945 as a lieutenant commander in Naval Intelligence, participating in the Normandy invasion and the invasion of southern France. It was during his military service that, on July 17, 1943, he was married to Virginia Mosby, a graduate of the University who was then working in the Washington, D.C., office of Alabama U.S. Senator Lister Hill. After the war ended, George returned to Tuscaloosa and resumed the practice of law as a founder of the firm LeMaistre & Clement, which became LeMaistre, Clement & Gewin in 1951 after Walter P. Gewin, later appointed a federal appellate judge, joined the firm.

An active member of the Democratic Party, George LeMaistre worked in the campaigns of Senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman, as well as campaigns of many other state and local political figures. He took active roles in the Alabama presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. In 1968, he was asked by New York Senator Robert Kennedy to serve as Alabama coordinator for that senator’s presidential campaign, a position which he enthusiastically accepted.

A Life Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa, for more than 50 years he taught Sunday School there, the men’s Bible Class, every week. The Rev. Charles Durham, a pastor of First Presbyterian, recalled that George LeMaistre’s Sunday School class was well attended by people interested in his biblical teaching as well as his insights into the world of national and international events. “The man is known for his incredible, brilliant mind, and for his just overwhelming wisdom, yet he’s a very quiet and true gentleman in every sense of the word,” said the Rev. Durham. “He could have wielded all sorts of power but did not.”

What he did do was turn his attention and efforts to further the cause of human relations, and was particularly proud, friends recalled, of his work with the National Conference of Christians and Jews – he was a member of its Board of Trustees and National Board of Governors from 1967 through 1978 – and of the Brotherhood Award he received from that organization in 1983. Former Tuscaloosa City Council President Bill Lanford recalled: “He was a true Southern gentleman above everything else. I never heard him get angry or raise his voice. He was always very deliberate in his decisions and his mannerisms, and he was a people person.”

George LeMaistre also devoted much of his life to the business and civic affairs of his community. In 1960, he embarked upon his second profession, giving up the practice of law to accept the position of president and chief executive officer of the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa.

It was during his tenure at City National Bank that the state of Alabama experienced the turmoil of the Civil Rights era, and it was George LeMaistre’s actions during this time that won him national acclaim. An article in the Thursday, November 24, 1962, New York Times, reporting the infamous pledge of Governor-elect George C. Wallace to defy federal authorities on the issue of desegregation, also contained the following account:

On the same day, George LeMaistre, president of the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa, warned the local Civitan Club of the economic penalties of racial violence. He then urged that they accept the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution.

Mr. LeMaistre stated that no state official had the right to put himself above the law and that includes a Governor or a Governor-elect. “What happened in Mississippi does not have

to happen again – it would be tragic to think we learned nothing from the first incident,” he said.

The Tuscaloosa News reported that the bank president received a standing ovation.

In 1970, George LeMaistre was named president of the Alabama Bankers Association. In 1972 and 1973, he served for the American Bankers Association as vice chairman of its government relations council. It was his dedication to, and knowledge of, the second profession that caused President Richard M. Nixon to appoint him to the position of director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a seat that, by law, was to be held by a Demo­ crat. In 1977, following the election of Jimmy Carter as president, the Board of Directors of the FDIC elected George LeMaistre chairman of the corporation, and he served in that capacity for fourteen months. In 1978 he returned to teaching at the University as holder of the Alabama Bankers Education Foundation Chair of Banking in the College of Commerce and Business Administration, and as professor of law.

During George LeMaistre’s tenure as chairman, the FDIC proposed that state-chartered banks be permitted to offer interest-bearing checking accounts and allow customers to transfer funds automatically from savings to checking accounts, a controversial proposal at the time. He was also opposed to allowing banks to charge for such transfers, or to requiring customers to forfeit any interest accrued in a savings account.

Closer to home, he is remembered as the first chairman of the board of directors of Druid City Hospital, now known as DCH Healthcare Authority, and for leading the fund drive to move the hospital from the Northing­ ton campus to its current location. A life-long proponent of public education, he firmly believed in the unique benefits society can realize by ensuring that its citizens are pro­ vided with opportunities for quality education. In addition to the nearly half-century that he was engaged in teaching at The University of Alabama, he served as a member and as chairman of the Stillman College Board of Trustees; member and chairman of the Helena, Alabama, Indian Springs School Board of Governors; trustee of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University; first president of the Alabama Coalition for Better Education; member of the board of Alabama Educational Television; and as a member of The President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama.

George LeMaistre is remembered by his colleagues in the banking and legal profess­ ions, his friends at the University, his neighbors in Tuscaloosa, and his colleagues in worship at the First Presbyterian Church as an individual of uncommon warmth, intelligence, judgment, and humor. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Virginia Mosby LeMaistre; three children, Virginia L. Jones (Mrs. A.A. Jones, Jr.) of Decatur, Alabama, Ms. Alice LeMaistre of Bethesda, Maryland, and George Alexander LeMaistre, Jr., of Fairhope, Alabama; two brothers, Sam A. LeMaistre of Eufaula, Alabama, and Dr. Charles A. LeMaistre of Houston, Texas; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

William H. Mitchell

• October 25th, 2021

Bill Mitchell’s roots run deep in Florence, Alabama, but his influence has branched out over the entire state.

William H. Mitchell was born on February 1, 1921, to William H. Mitchell and Celestine Martin Mitchell. His great-grandfather was a Scotch-Irish immigrant who pastored the Presbyterian church in Florence from 1843 to 1850; his grandfather served as probate judge, a 19th-century legislator, and still later as the state tax commissioner; and his father practiced law in the city. But while his heritage is proud, Bill Mitchell’s own efforts are what have written a place for him in Alabama history.

As a youth Mr. Mitchell attended Florence City Schools, going on to matriculate at Davidson College. After completing his undergraduate liberal arts education, he joined the United States Army, serving his country in the North African and European theaters of operation during World War II and earning a non-combat Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Legion of Merit award. Returning to his home state, he completed his degree in the law at The University of Alabama, receiving it along with membership in the Farrah Order of Jurisprudence. His formal education complete, he returned to Florence to practice law from 1946 to 1958, with bride Ellie Richardson by his side.

It was then he began his active career in banking, as president and chief executive officer of the First National Bank of Florence. (He had served as an inactive vice president of the concern, now SunTrust Bank, Alabama, N.A., from 1954-1958.) Over the years the bank’s assets grew from $23 million to more than $276 million at the time of Mr. Mitchell’s retirement in 1985, making it at that time the largest independent bank in North Alabama. He is modest about the role he played in the bank’s good fortunes.

“Any success we’ve had can be attributed to the general growth of the area, the good management that began well before I joined the bank, and to the confidence the public has in the bank,” he commented in a May 1978 interview with Alabama News Magazine upon his election as president of the Alabama Bankers Association. “We advertise that we’ve got deep roots in the community, and we try to be involved in all parts of community life.”

For Bill Mitchell, that involvement meant serving on the Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital Board of Governors, as chairman of the Muscle Shoals Regional Library Board, president of both the Florence Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Florence Chamber of Commerce, president of the Florence Rotary Club, chairman of the Lauderdale County chapter of the American Red Cross, vice president of the Lauderdale County United Fund, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce and the Alabama Department of Archives and History Board of Trustees. At First Presbyterian Church in Florence, he has served as a ruling elder, trustee, Sunday School teacher, and superintendent.

He also backed up his belief in education with his volunteer efforts as a member of The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, a charter member of The University of Alabama College of Commerce and Business Administration Board of Visitors, vice president of The University of Alabama National Alumni Association and as a member of the University of North Alabama President’s Cabinet. Combining his strong religious beliefs with his support for education, he also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Presbyterian Home for Children.

Bill Mitchell’s community recognized his business, volunteer, and philanthropic efforts, showing its pride by awarding him the first-ever Chamber of Commerce of the Shoals Lifetime Achievement Award. In comments at the awards ceremony in 1988, then WOWL-TV Board Chairman Dick Biddle said, “From his former position as president of the First National Bank of Florence, Bill has been constantly in the forefront of matters pertaining to the economic well-being of the Shoals. He is privately credited with being the one that brought together the board of directors of TV A and Reynolds Metals Company, resulting in a compromise that allowed Reynolds to continue to operate in the Shoals.

“Bill has been a very private man. Many of his deeds have gone unnoticed. He is dedicated to his family, his profession, and his community. And Bill carries on the tradition of an illustrious family of Shoals Mitchells.”

Others also recognized Bill Mitchell over the years. He was named the Florence Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow, enrolled in the Florence Exchange Club Book of Golden Deeds, named Citizen of the Year by the Florence Civitan Club, and received a Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1983. That award was presented by Dr. John C. Wright of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who noted about Mr. Mitchell, “his acts to facilitate the building of the economy through his banking career and related service, concern for the welfare of mankind through community and broader service, concern for religious convictions … concern for the intellect.”

When Mr. Mitchell looks back over that banking career, he is able to say the biggest change he experienced during his tenure as First National’s president and as an active member and leader of the Alabama Bankers Association was when the nation’s banking industry was deregulated in the late 1970s. “Banking was a protected industry when I started out,” he remembers. “Everybody in our market paid the same for deposits and charged the same for loans … if one word characterizes the whole industry, that word would be ‘change.’ ”

And Bill Mitchell has seen change in his beloved Florence, as well. During his life, the counties of Lauderdale and Colbert merged their chambers of commerce to foster economic expansion, meaning closer ties between the cities of Sheffield, Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia, and Florence. But that did not change Mr. Mitchell’s approach to doing business, which centered over the years around the ability to develop lifelong relationships. “I have never met a person who I did not learn something from and who did not mean something special to me,” he says. And it is those relationships that drove his desire to help his city and his state. “I basically just like people and feel that if an individual is going to spend time in a community he should help that community,” he says.

“A lot of people have helped this area out, and I am just one of them.”

John T. Oliver

• October 18th, 2021

John T. Oliver, Jr. knows intimately the road less traveled.

In the early 1980s the son of John Thomason Oliver, M.D. and Sara Crumpton Oliver chose to lead his beloved First National Bank of Jasper off the beaten financial path as the key player in the formation of a bank holding company, and in doing so carved for himself a place in the wall of financial greats in Alabama history.

John Thomason Oliver, Jr. was born April 19, 1929, in Birmingham, Alabama. Growing up in Tuscaloosa, he attended Tuscaloosa High School and the Marion Institute, then college at The University of Alabama, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1949. Three years later he followed that with a UA law degree – and marriage November 4, 1952, to Barbara Bankhead of Jasper. Together the couple would raise five children: sons John Thomason Oliver III and William Bankhead Oliver, and daughters Melissa Oliver, Beth Oliver Lehner, and Rebecca Oliver Haines.

After a term with the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps from June 1952 to December 1954, John began the next year as vice president of the First National Bank of Jasper. Almost four and a half decades later he still keeps the statement of condition reflecting the bank’s total assets as of that long-ago January 1, 1955: $9,793,853. That he has done so is reflective of the attention he has paid to detail and organization throughout his successful career. Another reflection is the statement of the bank’s total assets as of January 1, 1998: $443,927,380.

One of the early details John paid attention to was personally knowing each of his cus­tomers by name. That commitment and dedication to the bank, a part of the North Alabama mining community of Jasper since 1905, soon earned him the job of president, a position he assumed in December 1958. As president, John firmly believed it was his responsibility to provide the most sophisticated financial services available to his customers. His determination to provide top-notch service inten­sified as he was elected chief executive officer of the bank in January 1967.

While John Oliver was leading his community bank to financial success during the 1970s, he also found time to begin serving his state as a member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama. John joined the Board in 1971 and is still on it today. Among his accomplishments during his more than 25 years of service to education have been his leadership of the search for a president for the Tuscaloosa campus in 1995, his three terms of service as president pro tern of the Board, and his tenure as interim chancellor of the entire University of Alabama system, 1996-1997. In that unpaid position, he oversaw the $1.3 billion, three-campus system and coor­dinated its academic, legal, and financial operations. His civic duties were not performed solely in the education arena, however; over the years he has been a leader in such organizations as the Jasper Area Chamber of Commerce, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Jasper, Central Alabama United Way, and the Warrior-Tombigbee Development Association, and was one of the originators of the concept of the Walker Area Community Foun­dation. He now serves as president and director of that foundation, which at his suggestion was begun with an initial endowment of $6 mil­lion from the proceeds of the sale of Walker Regional Medical Center to Baptist Health System in 1995.

But it was in the early 1980s that John Oliver made the tough – and at the time fairly radical – decisions that would later define him as so much more than a solid, successful community banker and leader. The financial industry at the time was turbulent with consolidation and deregulation, and John found himself worried about the future of his bank; Walker County and the city of Jasper were slowing down economically. Determined to increase his institution’s value rather than to allow it to slide in performance and growth, instead of following the banking pack John took that road less traveled and in 1983 formed a holding company: First National Jasper Corp., anchored by the First National Bank of Jasper.

“We were making 1.7 or 1.8 on assets, our capital position was very strong, and we had over half the market,” John Oliver told American Banker in the late ’80s. “But we were worried about whether we would be big enough to offer the new products and generate the non-interest income necessary in the future … It was either do something or sell. We came up with, I think, the best of both worlds.”

The initial plan was to use available funds from the Jasper bank for loans through newly founded subsidiary banks in high-growth markets in Alabama. Along with helping the new subsidiaries get off the ground, that would bring a higher return on First National’s available funds. In June 1985 First National Jasper Corp. changed its name to First Commercial Bancshares, Inc., and in September 1985 a first took place in Alabama banking: the opening by a bank holding company of a de novo bank, First Commercial Bank in Birmingham. Two more de novo banks were opened in the late ’80s, The Bank of Tuscaloosa in 1988 and Sterling Bank in Montgomery in 1989. But even as the company continued to grow, John Oliver remained focused on preserving the community aspect of banking that had served him – and his customers – so well over the years. “Ours is a relationship strategy for banking, not a pricing or a marketing strategy,” he said.

That strategy played out nicely as the holding company continued to grow, adding First Commercial Bank in Huntsville, and perform well – during this period, First Commercial Banc­shares was recognized as one of” America’s Best Banks” by Financial World. Such acco­lades and the bottom line attracted the attention of potential partner Synovus Financial Corp., and in April 1992, John Oliver seized the opportunity to merge his $865 million company with Synovus, increasing that concern’s assets to $5 billion when the merger was completed in December. As part of the transition, First Commercial Bancshare retained the names of its banks, and John Oliver was named chair­man and chief executive officer of Synovus Financial Corp. of Alabama. His financial expertise and leadership during the merger earned him the prestigious position of vice-chairman of the executive committee of Synovus two years later, at which time he also became chairman of First National Bank of Jasper.

John Oliver could boast of many things he has accomplished. But boast he does not. Instead, he will turn the conversation to his wife and their fondness for another unbeaten path, one that led them physically out of the country to southern Ireland, where they built a home overlooking the Irish Sea. “The Irish are gentle, quiet people,” John said. “They love to talk, and they love Americans. I tell them that just as in Ireland, the best part of our country is the South.”

John Oliver, too, is a gentleman, in every sense of the word. And history will remember kindly this community banker who chose the road less traveled – and in doing so made all the difference.

Henry C. Goodrich

• October 11th, 2021

Henry C. Goodrich has had four careers.

The first was as an engineer, beginning with the U.S. Navy in the Civil Engineering Corps. He then joined Rust Engineering Company, where he worked in design, construction, and management. Then he became chairman and CEO of Inland Container Corporation in Indiana, and then it was back to Birmingham to head up Southern Natural Gas. He was one of the founders of BE&K, which is now one of the largest engineering firms in the country. And along the way, he created Richgood, a venture capital and investment company, and the Goodrich Foundation, his charitable giving foundation oriented primarily toward needs in the Birmingham area. And through it all, Henry C. Goodrich has had a good time.

Henry Calvin Goodrich was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, in 1920, the son of Dr. Charles Goodrich and Maude Baxter Goodrich. He attended grade school and high school in Fayetteville and studied pre-med at Erskine College. But he decided engineering was more his line and in 1939, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Two years later Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war was going badly for the United States and its allies. Students were under pressure to finish their studies and join the war effort, and that’s exactly what Goodrich did. A year after Pearl Harbor he finished at UT, where he was chosen for both business and engineering honor fraternities and selected as president of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He finished his studies in 1942 and received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1943.

After graduation, Goodrich enlisted in the Navy (he was already in the Naval Reserve) and was sent to Camp Perry, Virginia, a training area for Seabees. As a student at UT, he had met his future wife, Billie Grace, and the couple began making plans to marry. The wedding took place in Milan, Tennessee, on September 10, 1943. There was a quick one-night honeymoon and the couple headed back to Camp Perry. There was a period of training in Norfolk, Virginia, then a transfer to Monogram Field near Suffolk, Virginia. Goodrich began making plans to head overseas and Billie Grace returned to UT to finish her degree. His overseas duty was in Panama, where he served as an assistant public works officer at the naval air station.

In 1945, with the war winding down, Goodrich began looking for post-war employment and received a job offer from Daniel Construction Company in Birmingham to work as a field engineer on a new building in Gadsden, a job that would separate him from his wife and new son for long periods. But as luck would have it, while in Birmingham, he also stopped in to visit Rust Engineering, which also offered him a job. He explained the situation to Hugh Daniel, who understood the predicament. Goodrich went to work for Rust as a draftsman/ designer. In 1950 Goodrich moved from the drafting table to the sales office and began finding clients for Rust. As Goodrich began to “network” around Birmingham, business leaders began to recognize his talents and more invitations came his way to join the Birmingham Rotary Club, to become a director at Woodward Iron Company, to be on the board at Protective Life. The man from Tennessee had taken hold in Alabama.

In his first five years in sales at Rust, he brought on 64 contracts for Rust, and in 1956 he was named a vice president of the firm. In 1961 he was made a senior vice president and a member of the Rust board of directors, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company.

In 1967 Rust was sold to Litton Industries and Goodrich decided it was time to look for new challenges. He found them in the Hoosier State with Inland Container Corporation where he became executive vice president and director and moved his family to Indianapolis. One of his first moves at Inland was to build a new containerboard mill on the Tennessee River near ew Johnsonville, Tennessee, a state-of-the-art facility producing 300 tons per day of containerboard. The contract for the new plant went to Rust Engineering.

As he had in Birmingham, Goodrich sought out ways to serve Indianapolis as he had Birmingham, and he became active in several major civic activities. In 1969 he was elected president and chief executive officer of Inland. It was a busy time at Inland, but as always, Goodrich was never one to turn down an opportunity. So, when three old friends from Rust approached him to discuss starting an engineering firm, Goodrich listened. He agreed to help raise start-up money and in 1972, BE&K was born. In less than a year, the firm had landed a major contract and was on its way.

Inland continued to prosper and was on the Fortune 500 list. Goodrich was elected chairman of the board, and he began to spend more time at the family lake house on Lake Logan Martin near Birmingham and began to look for ways to make his exit from Inland. In 1978 Inland was acquired by Time, Inc. with Goodrich remaining in charge.

As Goodrich was relaxing at the Logan Martin Lakehouse, he received a call from John Shaw, president, and CEO of Southern Natural Resources, the huge Birmingham-based energy company on whose board Goodrich had served for seven years. At age 59, he was offered the job of president, and ultimately CEO, of Southern Natural Resources. Under Goodrich the company, renamed SONAT, set records for earnings, dividends increased and in 1981 Goodrich was named the top CEO in the gas pipelines industry.

In 1985 Goodrich retired from SONAT. Meanwhile, in Japan, the world’s largest enclosed semisubmersible offshore drilling rig was being constructed. And it was named the Henry Goodrich, for the chairman of SONAT Offshore (a SONAT subsidiary) and which was christened by Billie Grace Good rich.

Goodrich has held directorships in a host of companies, including SONAT, Inc., and subsidiaries; Time Incorporated, Ball Corporation, BE&K – Emeritus, Cousins Properties, Inc. – Emeritus, Temple-Inland Inc., Inland Steel, Indiana National Bank, Rust Engineering Company, and subsidiaries, Georgia-Kraft, Indiana Bell, BioCryst, Inc., Southern Research Technology, Protective Life Corporation, Woodward Iron Company, and Stokely-Van Camp.

His civic activities have included the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Birmingham, Community Chest of Indianapolis, Birmingham Council, Boy Scouts of America, Indian Springs School trustee, Salvation Army director, the University of Alabama at Birmingham President’s Council, director of Alabama Supercomputer Project, vice president and national trustee for the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is registered as a professional engineer in 12 states. He is a member of the Newcomen Society and an emeritus member of the University of Tennessee Development Council, as well as a senior director for the UAB Research Foundation.

He received the Nathan W. Doughtery Award from the University of Tennessee College of Engineering and was Industry Man of the Year in Indianapolis in 1974. The following year he was named Papermaker of the Year by Pulp and Paper Magazine and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Butler University. In 1978 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from Marion College. Three years later, in 1981, he was chosen Best Chief Executive in Gas Industry. Two other honorary Doctor of Law degrees followed, from Birmingham-Southern College in 1985, and from UAB in 1986, the same year he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and selected as one of 12 Outstanding Scientists and Engineers from Tennessee. He received the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 1987 and was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 1991.

Wallace D. Malone, Jr.

• October 6th, 2021

Wallace D. Malone Jr. was born into the banking business. And he has made the most of it. Malone basically built SouthTrust Corporation, which he has essentially run since 1972. He served as president until 1981 when he was elected chairman and chief executive officer. Over the past 29 years, SouthTrust has grown into one of the nation’s premier financial organizations.

His family entered banking over 100 years ago in one office in the heart of Dothan, Ala. The family bank, the First National Bank of Dothan, was chartered in 1900 by Malone’s grandfather with $50,000 in capital and $75,000 in deposits. That same bank is one of two forerunners of SouthTrust, now a $64 billion bank holding company – the largest financial organization in Alabama with the largest market value of any Alabama corporation.

Malone was born August 3, 1936, in Dothan, the son of Wallace D. Malone Sr. and Alice Mae Dee Malone. After graduating from high school in 1954, he enrolled at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). After one year, Malone transferred to The University of Alabama where he received his bachelor’s degree in business in 1957. Upon graduation, he worked for a small bank in Enterprise, Ala., for about a year. His first duty was to post the bank’s general ledger with pen and ink and to get the ledger in balance with a hand-crank adding machine. In 1958 he left Enterprise to pursue an M.B.A. degree at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and he earned that degree a year later. In June of 1959, he returned to Alabama and joined his father in the family bank. When his father died in 1968, Wallace D. Malone Jr. was named chairman and chief executive officer of the First National Bank of Dothan.

In 1996, The Birmingham News named Malone “CEO of the Year” and described him as “relentless, shrewd and fiercely competitive.” Those attributes have served him well in a lot of bank and industry battles over the past 40-plus years.

The last three decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the banking industry, and Malone has been in the middle of those changes. In 1972, the first holding company was introduced into Alabama, which Malone and several banks opposed. One of Malone’s allies was Guy H. Caffey Jr., president of Birmingham Trust National Bank. When the Federal Reserve Board approved the formation of holding companies in Alabama that year, Malone told Caffey, “Since we can’t fight ’em, we’d better join ’em and we’d better be quick about it.”

Malone and Caffey then decided to organize SouthTrust. By the end of 1972, South Trust had acquired a bank in Mobile and a bank in Huntsville. SouthTrust had less than $600 million in assets at that time. In January of 1981, Guy Caffey retired, and Malone was named chairman and CEO. SouthTrust’s total assets by then were $1.8 billion.

Malone has been recognized repeatedly for his strong leadership of SouthTrust. His intellect, his ability to laugh at himself, his compassion, and his ability to focus on the job at hand has been documented many times.

In introducing Malone at a Newcomen Society meeting some years ago, former president and chief operating officer for SouthTrust, Roy Gilbert, told the following story:

“Every great leader that I have ever read about has demonstrated compassion. There is a lady who goes to my church who has cerebral palsy, but she still works and drives an automobile, although with some difficulty. She works in the SouthTrust Tower. One morning, Wallace followed her into the parking deck and noticed how difficult it was for her to get her card into the access box to open the gate. When he got to his office, he called me and asked me to arrange for her to have an automatic access opener for her car; and he said he would personally pay for it. I don’t think she ever knew where it came from.”

Malone’s compassion is equaled by his business acumen. He has built SouthTrust into a Fortune 500 company, with more than 680 banking offices in nine Southern states. With more than $47 billion in assets, SouthTrust is ranked among the top 20 banks in the country. The company has more than 12,500 employees, of whom a considerable number are shareholders.

A key strategy that initially set SouthTrust apart was the decision to enter only high-growth markets, in the belief that internal growth, not continuous acquisitions, was the best way to produce long-term, top-notch performance. Malone has been careful not to acquire banks that cannot match the company’s growth rate. And he has been careful not to acquire banks that dilute stockholder value. As for the concept that big is always better, cheaper, and more efficient, Malone has often said, “being big does not necessarily make you smart, and being small does not necessarily make you dumb.”

Malone has seen SouthTrust’s loan business significantly increase. In the beginning, the bank had slightly more than $200 million in total loans, of which only $40 million were commercial loans. SouthTrust now has more than $32 billion in loans, with more than $22 billion in commercial loans. Today, SouthTrust makes loans to a single customer equal to twice the amount of the entire commercial loan portfolio in 1972. Up until the economic slowdown that began in the middle of last year, SouthTrust’s loan portfolio was growing at $2.5 billion or more a year.

Stockholders have also done enormously well at SouthTrust. Stockholder equity, in the beginning, was less than $30 million, compared with $3.8 billion today. The bank’s net income was around $5 million in 1972, and it has compounded at an average rate of 19 percent per year in the 29 years since then. Today SouthTrust is earning at the rate of more than $500 million annually. Net income in 2001 will exceed the total assets of the initial organization.

Malone is a strong believer in the “SouthTrust culture” and in taking care of employees. Under his guidance, the company has developed one of the industry’s premier profit-sharing plans. “Take care of the employees and they will take care of you,” Malone says.

Malone’s management philosophy was outlined in a recent article: “You have to hire good, conscientious, intelligent people. You must give those people the benefit of receiving extremely good training. You must pay them well, you must keep them motivated and use pay incentives everywhere possible to reward performance. People, particularly those at all levels of management, need to feel that they have the possibility of upward mobility. Good people always want to improve themselves. Management must be perceived as fair with everyone. Sometimes you can be a rather strict manager if you are perceived as absolutely fair. You must do things when they ought to be done. You don’t do on Thursday what you should have done on Monday. You must understand that the customer is king. If you don’t take good care of your customers, you will wake up one day with no customers and no business.”

SouthTrust employees make 95-plus percent of the customer decisions at the market level Malone wants all customers to be called by name when they visit the offices and have a positive experience. He has often said, “All money is green, and you can get just about the same type checking account, CD, or loan at most banks. What really sets a bank apart from its competitors is its people. With nearly all types of businesses, the company with the best people almost always wins.”

Malone either serves or has served on a number of boards over the years, including Troy State University, Samford University, Baptist Health System of Birmingham, the Eye Foundation Hospital, the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation, UAB Health System, Business Council of Alabama, Alabama Healthcare Council, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Salvation Army Advisory Board, Public Affairs Research Council, Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, the Alabama-Florida Boy Scout Council, the Greater Alabama Boy Scout Coun­cil, the Federal Reserve Branch of Birmingham, and United Way. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham, the President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama, the Culverhouse College of Business Board of Visitors, the Newcomen Society of North America, the Birmingham Business Leadership Group, and the Quarterback Club of Birmingham.

Malone is married to the former Ocllo Boykin Smith and they have six children and eleven grandchildren. He and his wife have traveled extensively, and he has skied and hunted on three continents.

Malone has been involved in many diverse, non-business activities that include tennis, golf, hunting, fishing, water and snow skiing, scuba diving, skeet shooting, flying (he earned his pilot’s license in 1955), archery, building cars, chess, and bridge. He truly is a man for all seasons.

J. Stanley Mackin

• October 4th, 2021

James Stanley Mackin, retired chief executive officer of Regions Financial Corporation, rose to the top of the banking industry thanks in large part to his vision and an uncanny sense of what was right for his company. With Mackin holding the reins, Regions grew from a company with $6.3 billion in assets in 1990 to $43.7 billion prior to his retirement in 2001.

Mackin was born to Louis and Aileen Tanner Mackin on July 30, 1932, in Birmingham, Ala., and grew up on the city’s Southside. He graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Management and also graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Commercial Lending School at the University of Oklahoma.

After his graduation from Auburn in 1954, Mackin served in the United States Navy on active duty from 1954-1958, before he returned to Birmingham to enter the construction and real estate business. He served in the Naval Reserve from I 950 until 1961 and retired as a commander in the United States Naval Reserve.

In 1966, Mackin entered the banking world and made a smooth transition from building houses to building a bank. He took a job in the Commercial Loan Department with Birmingham’s Exchange Security Bank. By 1971 he was serving as the head of his division in what had become First Alabama Bank. The builder-turned-banker served in numerous and varying roles within the company. He served as a vice president, senior vice president, executive vice president, senior executive vice president and continued to head the Commercial Loan Division until 1983.

In 1983 he was elected president and chief executive officer of Regions Bank. He was elected chairman and CEO of the bank as well as central region president of Regions Financial Corporation in 1986. He held that office until January of 1990. At that point, Mackin was named president and chief operating officer of the corporation. He received yet another promotion in August of the same year when he was elected chairman and chief executive officer of Regions Financial Corporation. Mackin’s leadership and vision led to Regions’ growth not only in assets but also made the company a major presence in the South.

In 1998 Mackin stepped down as CEO but remained chairman of the board and he served in that capacity until his retirement in May 2001 when he reached the mandatory retirement age that he established for the bank. “It’s important to step down and bring in new people with new thoughts and energies,” Mackin told Auburn’s magazine The Shareholder. “All of my waking hours have been devoted to this bank.” Mackin is a 1998 inductee into the Alabama Academy of Honor, created by the state legislature in 1965 to honor living distinguished citizens of the state. That same year, he was honored as a “Builder of Birmingham” by ReEntry Ministries.

Aside from his heavy involvement in the banking world, Stan Mackin has also invested heavily in his community through civic involvement. He has served as a board member for the SETON Health Corporation, Alabama Public Television Foundation, Birmingham Operaworks, and the John Carroll Foundation. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham, Operation New Birmingham, and Leadership Birmingham Class of 1984, as well as Auburn University’s Business School Board.

Mackin has served as the president of the Better Business Bureau for North Central Alabama as well as on the board of directors for both the Boys’ Club and the Jefferson County Boy Scouts.

During his tenure, he was involved in numerous professional organizations as a member of the American Bankers Association, the Alabama Bankers Association, the American Institute of Banking, International Financial Bankers, the Association of Bank Holding Companies, and the Reserve City Bankers. He also was on the Bankers Roundtable Board

and a member of Robert Morris Associates. He is a 1991 recipient of the Auburn College of Business’ “Distinguished Alumnus of the Year” award, the highest alumnus honor given by the college.

In 1996, the J. Stanley Mackin Eminent Scholar Chair in the College of Business was established in his name by the board of directors of Regions Bank.

He married Mary Jo Williams on June 7, 1954, and the couple has three children, James S. Mackin, Jr., Leah McKinney, and Brian W. Mackin, as well as nine grandchildren.

Sam P. Faucett, III

• October 4th, 2021

About seven years ago, The Tuscaloosa News called Sam Faucett an emotional man, one who has “fire in the belly.” The News editorial was remarking on Faucett’s selection as Northport’s Citizen of the Year.

Faucett is a passionate man, passionate about his family, his community, health care, education, The University of Alabama, and golf.

Faucett was born in 1935 to Sam Palmer (Bill) Faucett Jr., and Gwendolyn Margaret Dyer Faucett in Northport.  He attended Northport Elementary School, then Tuscaloosa County High School, and in 1956 he earned his bachelor’s of science degree in finance from The University of Alabama. He also received a degree from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin and the National School of Commercial Lending at the University of Oklahoma.

From 1949 through 1955 he worked at Adams Drug Store and at Faucett Brothers store, before spending a year at The Tuscaloosa Bank. Armed with his college degree, Faucett headed for New Orleans and took a job as an accountant with Shell Oil Company, gradually working his way up the ladder to the company office in New York.

A turning point came in 1962 when Faucett returned home and joined the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa, later known as First Alabama Bank and is now Regions Bank.

Starting as a loan teller, Faucett quickly became assistant vice president, vice president, and executive vice president, and senior loan officer at City National Bank, all within a span of 10 years.

In 1975, City National Bank became First Alabama Bank and Faucett was named president and chief executive officer of the Tuscaloosa bank. Eight years later he was named president of First Alabama – Western Region and made a member of the executive council.

In 1988, he became chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Tuscaloosa’s First Alabama Bank. Meanwhile, First Alabama Bancshares was formed in 1971, the state’s first multi-bank holding company. The name was changed to Regions Financial Corporation in 1994. In 1988 Faucett was named president of the Western and Florida Regions, with a seat on the executive council. In 1997 he became president of Western, Florida, and Louisiana Regions, a position responsible for Regions banks in Florida, Louisiana, and Western Alabama.

In 2000, Faucett announced his retirement, but that was only one event that year that was significant in his career. He also was named Citizen of the Year and by the city of Northport. In 2005, Faucett was named to Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame. He served 12 years on the Northport City Council and as Mayor for a brief time. He served on the board of DCH Regional Medical Center for 25 years,  served on the President’s Cabinet at UA and the Capstone Health Services Foundation, and is currently on the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration Board of Visitors, the DCH Foundation Board,  the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Board [PARA], and the Community Foundation of West Alabama.

His professional affiliations include serving as chairman, director, and treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, which in 2000 named him Entrepreneur of the Year.

He has contributed to the community not only his time but also made a $1.45 million donation to build a new Tuscaloosa County High School, which prompted the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education to name the facility the Sam P. Faucett campus of Tuscaloosa County High School and named the Faucett-Vestavia Elementary School for his mother and father

His philanthropic activities include service with the United Way, Association of Retarded Citizens, the American Heart Association, and Christ Episcopal Church.

He and his wife, Leslie Wood Faucett, whom he married in 1957, have two daughters, Margaret Faucett Phillips and Marsha Faucett Crow, and six grandchildren.

Raymond B. Jones

• October 4th, 2021

Ray Jones’ life’s work has grown straight up from the soil, with roots deep in the land where he was raised.

Raymond B. Jones, Sr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 23, 1935, to engineer Carl T. Jones and his wife Betty. Carl had been forced to leave his home in Huntsville, Alabama because of the depression and found work in Tennessee.  In 1939, he moved his family back to Madison County to attempt to revitalize the struggling family engineering business and to farm and raise cattle. He moved his wife, Betty, his son Ray and young daughter Betsy onto a worn-out 2,800-acre farm that he had purchased with his brother Ed as a backup in case their engineering business failed.

It was in 1939 that 4-year-old Ray would first see the farm that he would tend all of his life.  As a young man growing up on the farm, Jones tilled the land and herded cattle from before the sunlight shone on the valley until after it had gone away, and each day it bloomed in him a passion for the earth and its bounty.

Interest in agriculture and cattle-raising saw Jones off to Auburn University to study animal science.  To make money for tuition, he hatched and raised pheasants to sell to restaurants.  After Jones earned his degree and completed his military obligation he returned to Jones Valley in 1957 to manage the farming operations.  Over the next decade, the farm flourished.  The farm tripled the population of cattle and expanded its acreage with the acquisition of two other farms in Jackson and Marshall Counties.

During this time the farming, real estate, and engineering enterprises had come a long way, but Ray had stayed close to his roots.  In one of the most pivotal moments of his life, Jones became president of the family’s engineering firm with the untimely death of his father in 1967.  This necessitated his having to run the farms in three counties as well as the consulting engineering business.  Founded in 1886 by Jones’s grandfather, G. W. Jones & Sons Consulting Engineers still performs engineering design on a multitude of municipal projects.  Roadway, water, wastewater, and airport design, as well as land surveying services, are offered by the firm.  Huntsville’s International Airport was designed by the firm and is named for Ray’s father – Carl T. Jones.  Following the death of his father, Jones continued to run and expand the farming, real estate, and engineering businesses for the next thirty-five years.  Jones continues to be the CEO of G. W. Jones & Sons Consulting Engineers and G. W. Jones and Sons Farms.

In addition to the engineering and farming businesses, Jones has been involved in many other enterprises.  He is president of the North Alabama Mineral Development Company, president and CEO of R. B. Jones and Associates,  president of Valley Bend at Jones Farm shopping center and is involved in other real estate endeavors ranging from apartment complexes to subdivision developments.

Still, though, Jones’ roots and heart tell him he’s first a farmer, second a businessman. Over the years he has served as president of both the Madison County Cattleman’s Association and the Alabama Cattleman’s Association. A Huntsville Times article entitled “Foremost a Farmer,” describes Jones as a farmer – humble, wise, and unpretentious. “He knows about the uncertainty of tilling the land and he has respect and even reverence for the unpredictable whims of nature. Once a man has that knowledge he can never forget his tiny tentative place in the vast natural universe.”

Jones has received many awards for his business and civic leadership as well as his success and influence in the field of agriculture.   He received the “Distinguished Service Award” from the Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce in 2002.  He has served on the board of trustees of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee for the last 23 years.  In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.  He is currently serving as Chairman of the University of Alabama Huntsville Foundation.    Perhaps the most prestigious recognition in agriculture was when he became the first and still the only Alabamian to be awarded the “Sunbelt Farmer of the Year” in 1996.  He was surprised when he won, but no one else was.  The chairman of the award’s judging team said Jones “demonstrated all that is good about American agriculture.  He has built an outstanding beef cattle operation, relying on the heritage of his forbearers, who were pioneers in this area of Alabama.”

Today the legacy of the G. W. Jones & Sons family is being shared by Ray Jones and his wife Libby with their children.  Daughter Lisa and her husband Mark Yokley are both registered engineers.  Mark is the current president of the firm.  Daughter May and her husband Mike Patterson are involved in the firm.  May is a realtor; Mike is a CPA and Chief Financial Officer for the firm.  Son Raymond B. Jones, Jr. and wife Kristy are active in the firm.  Raymond is a realtor and runs the cattle operations.  Kristy is a licensed insurer.  The 121-year-old firm that started with his grandfather continues through Jones and his children.

Jones related this quote in an interview for a newspaper article some years ago.  “We are, all of us, the recipients of the courage, hard work, and vision that has come down to us from our forefathers.  Our duty is to build on that heritage while invoking the blessings of our heavenly Father and always giving thanks to Him for the privilege of living in this great land that we call America.”

William A. Williamson, Jr.

• October 4th, 2021

William A. (Billy) Williamson, Jr., in his teen years, had visions of being a successful cattle farmer. After buying a pair of calves for a class project, nurturing them for a year, and selling them for less than he paid for them, he figured that maybe his skills lay in another direction. Instead of going to Auburn as he had planned, he enrolled in the business school at The University of Alabama and graduated with a degree in management.

Upon returning to his hometown of Montgomery in 1958, where he still lives when not in the mountains of Highlands, N.C., he embarked on his business career in the warehouse of Durr Drug Company. The company, founded as a grocery store in 1896, was known as Gay, Hardy, and Durr. In 1905 the company was incorporated as Durr Drug Company, a distributor of pharmaceuticals, hospital equipment, and supplies as well as health and beauty aids.

As he learned the business, Williamson worked in several capacities: data processing manager, company secretary, and treasurer, and vice president of operations until he was elected president and CEO in 1974 and chairman and CEO in 1981. Under his leadership, the company became public and sales grew from approximately $40 million to more than $1 billion in 1992, when it was acquired by Bergen Brunswick.  When asked what he thought made the company unique, he replied, “A strong employee work ethic, high company morale, and a dedication to quality customer service.”

Prior to the sale of the company, the decision had been made to endow a chair of business ethics at The University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce. Led by Williamson and Eddie Adair, company president, contributions from the company’s management team, its board of directors, and friends of the company made the chair a reality.

After the company was sold, Williamson resigned and pursued other business interests, working with Cordova Ventures (a venture capital firm), buying a publishing company that focused on wing shooting and fly fishing books, and along with others, purchasing a restaurant franchise. In 2002, Williamson and his son formed Whetstone Capital, a private investment company managed by his son.

Currently, Williamson is on the board of directors of Genesco, Inc., a specialty retailing company on the New York Stock Exchange. He is a past chairman and member of the board of directors of Jackson Hospital and is a member of the national board of Kairos Prison Ministries, a member of the Montgomery YMCA Metro Board, and the Board of Visitors of the University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce. He is a member of the Chief Executive Organization.

Past board memberships include AmSouth Bankcorporation, Dunn Investment Company, co-chair of the River Region Tocqueville Society, Central Alabama Community Foundation, and president of the National Wholesale Drug Association.

Community Memberships have included the Montgomery Lion’s Club, the Men of Montgomery, and the Steering Committee of the Montgomery Chapter of Young Business Leaders. He was a member of Leadership Alabama, class of 1992-93, and in 1993 he received the Golden Hawk Award from Huntingdon College’s School of Business.

Active in church work, he is a former senior warden and Cursillo lay rector. He is currently a member of Christ Church XP, an Anglican Parish.

He enjoys outdoor activities including golf, fly fishing, bird hunting, clay, and skeet shooting, and training his own retrievers. He and his wife Pat have two children, Virginia Paige and William A. III, better known as Buster, and three grandchildren.

Nimrod T. Frazer, Sr.

• October 4th, 2021

Mr. Frazer was born on December 10, 1929, in Montgomery, AL where he resides today.  He received his undergraduate degree from Huntingdon College in Montgomery in 1954 and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1956.  Mr. Frazer was a Lieutenant and Tank Platoon Leader in the Korean conflict where he received the Silver Star for Gallantry in Action.

The majority of Mr. Frazer’s business career has been spent in the financial services industry.  He was a broker for Sterne, Agee & Leach, executive vice president at Thornton, Farish & Gaunt, and co-founder and chairman of Frazer Lanier Company (dealer in both corporate and municipal securities).

In 1990, shortly before its bankruptcy, Mr. Frazer was elected to the Board of The Enstar Group, Inc.  He later accepted the chairman’s role and resigned from Frazer Lanier.  The company was in dire straits with the bankruptcy as well as former executives under indictment and massive debt.  Mr. Frazer took on the challenge.  He divested assets, collected judgments from executives, and paid down debt.  He transformed the company into a holding company of financial assets, primarily insurance and reinsurance companies.  Enstar’s market capitalization is over $1.5 billion.

Mr. Frazer has been active in numerous civic and charitable organizations such as chairman of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, member of Leadership Alabama, trustee of Huntingdon College, president of Lurleen B.Wallace Cancer Foundation, director of Alabama Mental Health Association, and many others.

Mr. Frazer and his wife, Lee, have been married for 51 years and have five children in addition to nine grandchildren.